Well for the upcoming quad season we bought a 99 suburban. It is immaculate for its year but I missed a step in researching it fully before i bought this particular vehicle. It was offered with 3..42 and 3.73 rear gears....I went out last nite and checked out ours and it has the 3.42 gears...I was hoping for the 3.73's. So now that its a done deal and we own this one, what can I expect from it while pulling our 4 quads on a 16' trailer...the truck has stock sized tires, an auto trans, and a 5.7 l motor.
Does anybody here pull with a suburban and if so what gear ratio final drive gears do you have? how does it pull for ya?

 

I can pull my son's 20 ft pontoon and 80 horse Yamaha 4 stroke easily with my old 2000 model truck and it has 3.42 gearing with the 5.3 V8,but his 2007 Silverado has a 3.23 rear end and he does struggle a little with the 4.8 V8 he has. If yours is like mine you shouldn't have any problems pulling 4 quads on a 16 ft trailer! His pontoon/motor and trailer weigh a heck of a lot more than that. He's planning on changing his to a 3.73(don't now how much $$?) on the next trip to Broken Bow.Something he wished he'd checked out too before he bought it!

 

you'll be fine.
it has a 5 sp tranny- 1st gear is low.
you have to look at your gear ratios along with the rear end-
but your burb is probably rated for at least 8-10,000 lbs of pulling with a 350 or 500lb hitch.

you'll get better gas mileage with the 3:42's.
but if you're that concerned about it- you can probably pick up a set of 3:73 gears from summit for a few hundred.

 

Thanks for the replies. Not too awful concerned...I think the 3.73's would be "better" for acceleration and biger hills but with the bigger motor and relatively light loads I am pulling I expect it to suffice... and with it being a 4x4 I wouodnt want to hafta replace 2 diff gears... the price being the first obstacle...the bigger issue being setting them up since I hear that can be tricky and I would probably leave that to an expert which equals more money involved.

 

I pull a 20ft trailer with 5 quads with a 96 burban 5.7ltr. I have no issues at all, pulled from northern Cali to Vegas last year. Not sure what gears are in mine, I do know that on the hwy at 70mph the tach reads about 1800 rpm's. I have the 42 gallon tank so that helps on the long hauls.

 

Durby,
Were you in overdrive or Drive running 70 at 1800 rpm's ?
Let me know which and I will run mine at 70 in both OD and Drive and I can let ya know what mine turns...thus letting you know what gears are in yours.

 

Durby,
I think I can "predict" that on your trip you were in OD ...as today I was driving home and my suburban was right at 1800 rpm at 70 mph.. "D" Drive was at about 2500 rpm at 70...so one coulld surmise yours has 3,42 gears as well.

 

Manual says when towing heavier stuff do not use Overdrive or Criuse Control. Just suck up the gas milage loss for that trip.

 

Just push the "tow/haul" button on the end of the shift lever on GMC products if you're under a strain or worried about overheating.Drops it out of od on hills,etc.

 

The older gm stuff doesn't have a tow/haul button. Think that came out around 2000 or so.